The Real Rocky Runs A 13 Minute Mile
From Left: My wife Pauline, me (crying), daughter Rose, son Max, and her miracle surgeon Dr. Vance Broach after they completed the NY Marathon on Sunday.
This past Sunday my wife Pauline finished the NY Marathon in just over six hours. Five months earlier, in June, she completed her 6th round of chemotherapy. When she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer last January we weren’t sure she would live to see another marathon, let alone run in one. Her surgeon, Dr. Vance Broach saved her life in January and ran the Marathon with her yesterday. The video below is of Pauline, Dr. Broach, and Moe Byrne another Memorial Sloan Kettering surgeon crossing the finish line hand in hand.
Going through my wife’s cancer with our two kids is the hardest thing I’ve done in my adult life. And yet I’m glad I went through it. I’ve never felt a greater sense of joy, abundance, and love as I do right now. I have an acute front-of-mind sense that I have everything I need and most of what I want. Before cancer my waking hours were consumed by everything I wanted and didn’t have.
This Tuesday many of us will cast a vote in an election whose outcome we can’t control. We are at the mercy of political outcomes, sporting events, markets, and companies that we can’t control. We win clients and lose them. Bank accounts expand and contract. People find themselves in wars they did not choose started by leaders they did not elect.
But it’s a fucking miracle you woke up this morning.
It’s a miracle that you love someone and they love you back.
It’s a miracle that 50,000 people ran 26.2 miles through the most diverse city on Earth, and it was united in one loving, screaming, cowbell-ringing hug.
It’s a miracle that right now someone is kicking heroin and celebrating their first day without a drink.
Somewhere a baby was born, someone got into college, someone started their first day at their dream job.
Someone’s boss fought like hell to support and protect them without them knowing.
Someone found the courage to quit their job and start a new venture.
Somewhere a soldier returned from the front and hugged their mom.
And a doctor like Vance Broach removed a cancerous tumor from someone’s abdomen.
The world is tumultuous and treacherous. And yet if we choose to see it, we are surrounded by miracles.
Whatever happens this Tuesday, what happened on Sunday is more important.
We’ll be back with more Business Punk insights next week. Until then, please enjoy a miracle.
There are a few tickets left for our conversation with Bree Groff, who will talk about her forthcoming book “Today Was Fun” at our secret NYC bar on Wednesday, Nov.6. Tickets here. RSVP here.
